


Natevember Anthology

by allisondraste



Series: Temperanceverse [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Prompt Fic, natevember
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27344557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allisondraste/pseuds/allisondraste
Summary: A collection of works featuring Nathaniel Howe based upon the "Natevember" prompt list found here: https://noswordstyle.tumblr.com/post/633159439246065664/i-forgot-to-post-it-here-as-im-more-active-aboutEach chapter will be a new prompt, and tags will change as prompts are completed.  Stay tuned!!
Relationships: Cousland/Nathaniel Howe, Female Cousland/Nathaniel Howe
Series: Temperanceverse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837330
Kudos: 7





	1. Ache

**Vigil’s Keep, 9:32 Dragon**

An errant tear, eyes glazed over and set in the distance, as if she were glancing into the past. Liss never realized that Nathaniel saw those brief lapses in resolve before she blinked, shook her head and re-focused on the matter at hand. Presently, that matter was fumbling with a needle and thread, as she attempted to repair an aged piece of fabric. 

Liss laughed in frustration, setting the needle down on her lap carefully and turning to look at him where he sat on the edge of the bed. “Mama would be so ashamed of me,” she said as her eyes flicked briefly back toward her work, “First, for being careless with her favorite shawl, and tearing a hole in it. Second for being such a pathetic seamstress.”

A pang of guilt surged through him at the words. Teyrna Eleanor. He remembered Liss’ mother, in all of her rugged, often tactless grace. He doubted that the woman who preferred the shooting range to the dining hall had ever been careful with her clothing, or skilled at darning the delicate materials of which they were made. She had welcomed him into her home every summer for years, treated him as one of her own at a time when his mother’s death was still a recent memory. It was his father’s fault she was dead. It was Nathaniel’s fault that he had been too far up his own arse to stop him. 

He rose from the bed and approached Liss, examining the clumsy stitches with which she’d become so frustrated. “Do you really believe that?”

“No,” she answered somberly, tracing the stitches with her thumb, “Not really. I just miss her.” She brought her eyes up to him again, still brimming with new tears. 

“I know,” he managed, pushing past the ache that gripped his throat and chest. “I miss her too.” 


	2. Jar

**Highever, 9:32 Dragon**

The summer sky burned orange behind the shadows of full-leaved trees that grew just outside the walls of Castle Cousland, the first sign of stars twinkled in the east as the sun began to set. Warm, humid air, and sunsets carried bittersweet memories for Nathaniel, those he’d formed over seven short summers in his childhood, those that haunted him in the nearly ten years that followed. It was inaccurate to call it homesickness, for it was not his home, and yet he could find no better word. In all truth, it wasn’t Highever he missed. It was  _ her.  _

But that was an old story, one he no longer needed to tell. Unless Liss asked to hear it, of course. 

He glanced to his right, where she walked by his side, staring out over her family’s lands with sparkling eyes. Fireflies danced in the distance, and in the tall grass around their feet. Slowly, Liss turned to face him, seeming to sense his gaze on her. 

“What,” she asked with a laugh, eyebrow quirking up at the question.

“Nothing,” he answered, shaking his head, “Do you remember when we were children, and we ran around like fools catching fireflies?”

Liss didn’t answer, she just reached down into her pack, rifling through the various contents only to pull out a small glass container made of rose-tinted glass, smirking as she placed it in his hand. “Maybe this time we’ll catch enough for a lantern.”

Nathaniel snorted. “Are you serious?”

“Oh,”she exclaimed, clasping her hands together, “I got one.” 


End file.
